Welcome to My Life
by SqueeG-1
Summary: There were good things about being lost after all.


Author's Notes: An AU version of Season Five episode _Enemies_. Written for the Gateworld Ship Family Ficathon. Prompts: "Lost". Title comes from Sam's line in the show. I always loved the way she said it. :) Unbeta'd so I apologize in advance for any errors.

**Welcome to *My* Life**

It had been _Daniel_, of all people, who kicked him off the pel'tak. Okay, so Jack would probably have to admit that he had been a tad irritating. But, _Daniel_?

Jack wandered aimlessly along the gold hallway with a petulant expression on his face. 'Who could blame me for being restless?' he thought to himself, 'After all, we're stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way to get home. Well, no fast way to get home.' He aimed a kick at the wall and then winced and limped his way along the corridor.

"And I'm getting really sick of the décor!" he exclaimed aloud, to no one in particular. Lost in his own thoughts, Jack turned a corner and almost tripped over Sam Carter who was seated on the floor. His arms pin-wheeled as he tried to keep his balance.

"Whoa, give a guy a bit of warning, Carter. What are you doing down there anyway?"

Sam Carter started to rise to her feet, but Jack waved her back down. She canted her head to the doorway across from where she sat, "Thought I'd come and visit for a bit, Sir." Only then did Jack realize that he had wandered down to the room where they were holding Teal'c. The invisible force field keeping the man imprisoned allowed Jack to see the scowling face of his former team mate. Teal'c had been saved, but had come back to them a changed man – brainwashed into again believing the goa'uld Apophis was a god and that Teal'c was his loyal servant.

"Hey Teal'c. How's it going?"

"Kel kek," was the snarled reply.

"That good, huh?" Jack replied with a sigh, sinking down to sit on the floor beside Sam.

"He's refusing to eat anything," Sam said quietly. "I'm getting worried."

"Don't worry about it, Carter. He'll eat eventually. Won't you buddy?" Teal'c's only response was a deeper scowl. "After all," Jack continued conversationally, "he's going to want a Jaffa's revenge on us puny mortals who kicked his god's ass. Again."

It had been a close call though. They had believed that Teal'c was dead; either at Apophis' hand before both of their ships had been hurled into another galaxy, or when Apophis had been forced to set the self-destruct on his ship which had been overrun by Replicators in the galaxy they were in now. They had been overjoyed when Teal'c had contacted them from a goa'uld transport ship claiming he and a few Jaffa loyal to his rebellion had escaped before the destruction of Apophis' ship.

A swish of gold at the edge of the screen had alerted Jack to the possibility that things were not as they seemed. After all, no "mere Jaffa" would be robed in gold. So when Jack went to greet Teal'c and found himself face-to-face with first his sidearm stolen by Teal'c and then Apophis himself, along with a contingent of Jaffa, Jack was very glad that he had Carter stay behind. She rolled a goa'uld stun grenade into their midst and by the time Jack shook off the effects, Sam and Daniel had bound, dragged and imprisoned the lot of them: Apophis had been put into a holding cell on his own, the six Jaffa had split into groups of two and put in cells far away from the other groups and their god to cut down on the possibility of a concerted escape attempt, and Teal'c had been placed in a cell of his own several decks away from all of the other prisoners. Not that he appreciated the special treatment.

From his position on the floor Jack continued to address Teal'c, "You remember about the Jaffa revenge thing, don't you Teal'c? You know, like how you were going to kill Tanith for murdering Shau'nac?"

Teal'c's face screwed up momentarily in confusion, as if remembering something from a long time ago before once again narrowing his eyes angrily at Jack. "Tanith returned me to my god Apophis from your captivity and deception."

From the corner of his eye, Jack saw Sam turn her face away and heard her quick indrawn breath. If Teal'c did not remember his hatred of Tanith he was indeed very far gone. Jack was at a loss himself about what, if anything, could be done.

Jack sighed as well and then rose slowly to his feet. He held out a hand and pulled Sam up after him. "Might as well do the rounds while we're here, eh Carter?"

"Yes sir." The two of them wandered down the hallway away from their intractable team mate.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The pair made a quick stop to pick up their P-90s before beginning a level by level check of the ha'tak. Not only did they need to keep an eye on their prisoners, they had Replicators to worry about. After making sure the prisoners were secure, Jack, Sam and Daniel had returned to the transport ship that Teal'c had been piloting to check for extra supplies. In a storage room they found a couple of the metal bugs in a container and immediately loaded the ship up with C4, set it on autopilot out of the landing bay and blew the ship to hell when it was far enough away. However, with no guarantee that the Replicators they found were the only ones they all felt safer doing sweeps of the ship a couple of times a day.

They were in a very unstable position lost in a galaxy so far from home, but it could have been worse, Jack supposed. The original plan had been to transport all of the Tok'Ra, their belongings and their stargate to a new planet about a week's travel away from Vorash. The plan had gone awry and the Tok'Ra had been evacuated through the stargate, leaving only SG-1 (minus Teal'c) and Jacob Carter on the ship. The good news was that they had a large amount of stored water, food, supplies and weapons. Even with the extra mouths to feed they wouldn't be going hungry anytime soon.

The bad news was that they had an entire goa'uld ship with only four people to maintain it, and only three to search for creepy metal invaders since one person needed to be in the pel'tak at all times. And eventually they _would_ need water. And food. Not to mention any trouble that the hostiles downstairs were no doubt plotting.

After a couple of days hiding near the sun to avoid detection from any Replicator ships that might be in the area, it was decided that they would have to leave the safety it provided. The very interference that kept them from detection made it impossible to scan for planets that might be a source of the necessities they would eventually need. Jacob carefully ran the best scan he could for other ships in the area and then they had cautiously slid out from their established orbit. They had collectively held their breath with an almost childlike fear of the things that go bump in the night, just waiting to pounce. But so far there had been no problems. Quietly, they were each waiting for the other shoe to drop. Of course, none of them voiced their fears to the others.

At least the beds were comfy. They had set up their quarters close to the pel'tak. They had all eschewed the room that had clearly belonged to Cronus, but the rooms nearby were equally lavish – intended for his most favoured guests.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The days gradually fell into a routine of watches, chores and searches. The four members of the "crew" all gathered together for meals and at least one member of SG-1 would also sit with Teal'c for a while when his food was delivered. It was hard on them all when they were met with only stony silences or barraged with imprecations, but Jack, Sam and Daniel felt that it was important to make an attempt to communicate with him.

Of course, there was only so much time that they could spend cooped up together before tempers started to fray. It had been about two weeks since they had left the sun, en route to a distant group of planets that had been detected by the sensors, when the first blow up happened. The fact that it happened didn't shock Jack, so much as the fact that it was Carter that went first. One minute they had all been eating dinner together and the next Carter was yelling at her dad. Jacob, not one to back down from a fight had of course started yelling back. Jack and Daniel looked like they were watching a tennis match, the ball lobbed back and forth with force between the players. Jack wasn't even sure what had set this off. Jack would have to ask Daniel later – he'd no doubt been paying more attention to the conversation than the food as Jack had been.

Sam eventually threw up her hands in frustration and stormed from the room, and Jack just knew that if there had been a door that she could have slammed she would have done just that.

With a sudden silence falling on the room Jacob sat back in his chair, the hard line of his jaw showing he was still angry. Jack looked apologetically at Daniel and then gestured toward the door,

"I'm just going to go and-" He moved towards the door, ignoring Daniel's panicked look at being left behind with a pissed off Jacob.

Jack finally found Sam a couple floors below in one of the storage rooms, standing with her elbows on a stack of crates and her head in her hands. She tensed briefly when the door opened, but relaxed quickly, apparently sensing it was him since she didn't look up from the box she was staring at. Jack moved further into the room, the door sliding quietly shut behind him and stood a couple steps away from Sam watching her in the dim lighting.

After a couple of minutes Sam cleared her throat and spoke.

"Sorry that was so…"

"Loud?" Jack completed when she trailed off, not completing her sentence.

"Embarrassing." Sam raised her head and met his gaze, her cheeks colouring a light pink. "I don't know what came over me. I haven't yelled at my dad like that since I was 15."

"I'm surprised you didn't yell at him until you were in your twenties. No doubt he deserved it. But don't tell him I said that!"

Sam huffed in amusement and turned to face him. Her smile was bittersweet when she replied, "I probably would have, except my mom died when I was 16. We didn't really communicate at all for a while after that."

"Ah," was all Jack supplied in response to that statement.

Sam tried to lighten the sombre mood that had descended on them. "I wonder if he's going to ground me like he did the last time we had a shouting match. Oh wait, we're already all grounded."

Sam's attempt at levity worked and Jack chuckled. But then he stepped closer to Sam and said quietly, serious once again.

"We all understand, Sam. It's hard on us all to be cooped up like this. But we'll survive it. We always do. Oh, and another thing, don't think I haven't noticed that you're blaming yourself for this either. Ah, ah, ah!" He raised a finger, not letting Sam interrupt him. "Don't try to tell me that you haven't been thinking about it. I know you. I've given you time to beat yourself up about it, but now it's time to stop."

Sam wasn't surprised by the fact that Jack could read her like an open book. She was, however, surprised by the tears that she felt springing to her eyes at his quiet understanding. Sam ducked her head, but not fast enough to stop Jack from seeing the unusual glimmer in her eyes. He took her wrist and tugged Sam gently towards him.

"C'mere."

Sam found herself enveloped in Jack's comforting arms and after holding herself stiff for a brief moment, relaxed into his hold. Her eyes were damp, but she didn't weep – although the temptation was very strong to just let go of her control, safe in the circle of his arms.

Eventually they drew apart and Sam gave Jack a shy smile.

"Guess I should go apologize to dad."

"Naw, let him think that he should do the apologizing. Give him the silent treatment for another couple of days and he'll think he was wrong."

"You really think it's going to work that way?" Sam quirked an eyebrow at him in disbelief.

"Yeah, probably not. Well, it's up to you Carter, but you know he'll think he won if you apologize." With the immediate crisis past, Jack deliberately played up to Sam's competitive side. Maybe he could make a wager with Daniel on which of the Carters would crack first. But thinking of Daniel…

"Um, we should probably both apologize to Daniel though. I left him alone with your dad.

A look of horror flashed across Sam's face.

"We'd better go rescue him!" Sam exclaimed as she hurried out of the storage room.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The fight blew over after a couple of days, although from the smug grin on Jack's face it had been Jacob who cracked first and Daniel who lost money. Or goods. Or something that they could bet with.

Now that the four were used to the established routine, they started to find that despite all the work that needed to be done, some downtime could be established. In fact, the blow up between Sam and Jacob had helped remind them all that a bit of recreation would help keep them all in better tempers.

Jack ransacked and pillaged the personal goods of the Tok'Ra that had been stowed on the ship. Jacob, and his Tok'Ra symbiote Selmak, had been less than happy with that when Jack first made the suggestion.

"C'mon guys," Jack had pleaded. "It's not like they're going to be able to get their hands on the stuff anytime soon. We need it more than they do right now. And it's not like I'm going to show off their dirty laundry. At least, I hope there's no actual dirty laundry in there…" At the wrinkled expression of distaste that crossed Jack's face Jacob started to laugh.

"Fine, go look. But I don't want to know who you 'borrowed' anything from!"

"Yes!" Jack had gloated briefly, not wanting to push his luck and have Jacob and Selmak change their minds. "Let's go see what we can find Danny-boy!"

Daniel had cast a beseeching look at Sam and Jacob, hoping that one of them would save him from being stuck with Jack when he was in such a childish mood. The Carters had simply smirked and waved goodbye.

The search had turned up quite a bit of stuff, including several decks of cards and Tok'Ra board games. Selmak, Jacob and Daniel already knew how to play most of the board games and between them taught Jack and Sam how to play. The few games that no one knew, they invented their own rules for and played them that way.

Daniel was pretty sure that the game with the marbles and bits of river glass wasn't supposed to be played as a contact sport – but it was fun, so he went along with it anyway.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

A cooped up Jack quickly turned into a restless Jack. And a restless Jack would be an annoyance to them all. So before Jack could really start irritating Daniel, or worse, her father, Sam started to ask Jack if he wanted to go for a run. She rightly assumed that if he burnt off some energy Jack would be calmer. He always was the kind of man that preferred action. Pretty soon, Sam didn't have to ask Jack. Their runs just started to work their way into the daily routine.

Of course, running through the same ship day after day quickly became a bit dull for both of them. They started plotting more elaborate routes, the only decks off limits being the two that housed their prisoners. Then they started to race each other. The loser of the race would have do one of the winner's chores or forfeit a luxury – Sam was still mourning the loss of one of the chocolate bars she had stowed in her pack before they left Earth. Even if Jack had shared some of it with her.

In fact, that thought spurred Sam to speed up as she raced down the gold corridor. Just behind her she could hear the pounding of Jack's feet. She had just passed him and now was quickly outdistancing him. Their finish line was just at the end of this hall and it was a straight away from here. And, Sam thought, she was pretty sure Jack had a hidden stash of chocolate of his own… Suddenly Jack's footsteps faltered and he swore loudly. Sam slid to a stop, her momentum carrying her forward until she could turn around. Behind her Jack was hopping around, one had grabbing at his left knee and cussing enough to turn the air blue. Sam jogged quickly back towards him.

"God, Jack, are you okay? Let me take a look at it." Sam leaned down and moved Jack's unresisting hand from his knee. "Is it your ACL? Oh please let it not be your ACL…"

"Don't worry about it Carter, it's fine. More than fine actually." Jack quickly sidestepped her and smirked down at her puzzled expression. "See you at the finish line." He called back towards where Sam still stood, thrown off guard.

Sam's eyes narrowed and as she quickly dashed after him, yelling, "I'm going to get you for that O'Neill!"

Sam caught up with him just in time to make it a tie.

Jack smirked back at Sam's scowl. "Guess we both lose, huh?"

"Cheater. Cheater O'Neill, that's what I'm going to call you from now on," Sam huffed back as she caught her breath. When he only grinned wider, Sam harrumphed and quickly turned to hide the losing battle she was having with her own grin at seeing his. Sam started walking away from him.

"I'll make it up to you," Jack said as he hurried up to her side.

"How are you going to do that, Cheater O'Neill?" Sam tossed over her shoulder at him.

"How about this?"

One minute Sam was walking down the hall and the next she was against the wall, hieroglyphs pressing into her back and Jack pressing into her front. His mouth was moving over hers and Sam's lips parted for him even as her hands, without conscious thought, buried themselves in Jack's silver hair. Jack pressed in closer and Sam moaned into his mouth. His fingers gripped her hips tighter at the sound. Long moments passed before the two broke apart, desperate for air despite their desperation for each other.

"Quarters?" Jack huffed, trying to take in oxygen quickly so that he could get back to the kissing.

Sam shook her head no, "Dad, Daniel." She replied, equally breathless. At Jack's disappointed look, she tugged on his hand and with a smile lead him further down the hall. She stopped in front of one of the doors inset into the wall. Sam quickly overrode the lock on the door - all doors to rooms they did not use were locked down except when that section was being searched – and Jack and Sam found themselves in a barracks-style room with eight single beds. The couple fell onto the closest one and took up where they had left off.

A long while later, Sam raised her head from it's position on Jack's bare chest and raised a hand to his face. She languidly stroked her thumb over his lips until Jack opened his eyes. He quickly kissed her thumb and then shifted.

"Time to head back?" he asked with a sigh.

"Yeah. I'm on dinner duty tonight. I've gotta go."

"Okay."

Jack and Sam slid out of the bed and quickly re-dressed. But before Sam could leave, Jack scooped her up into a tight hug, once again devouring mouth with his. Eventually, they broke apart again breathing unevenly. They left the room and Sam re-locked the door.

As they started down the hallway, Jack tangled his fingers with Sam's. After walking in silence for a couple of minutes, he cleared his throat and said casually, "So, do you think we'll go… running… again?"

Sam looked over at Jack with an arched eyebrow and an otherwise expressionless face, and for a brief moment Jack thought that he had blown it. But then he felt Sam's thumb rub against the side of his and she grinned.

"Probably. I like running with you, Jack."

The pair walked down the hall grinning like goons, and not just because of the happy hormones their activities had sent zipping through their bodies.

When they reached the rings that would take them up to the pel'tak level, Sam loosened her grip on Jack's hand and moved away.

At Jack's slightly startled look, she smiled and said, "You really don't want my dad to see this right now. In fact, you need to start looking a little less happy too. Trust me."

Jack's confusion helped replace his grin and he replied. "Sam, we're both adults. What's he going to do?" When Sam's only reply was a slightly evil grin, he got worried. "No, really what's he going to do?!"

Sam stepped into the rings and just before she got whisked away she called out to Jack. "Welcome to _my_ life!"

Jack stood stock still for a moment, trying to process what she'd said and then he started grinning again. He could deal with any potential fallout with Jacob later. In the meantime, he was part of Sam's life. He could live with that.

As Jack walked away from the ring room grinning, he decided that there were good things about being lost after all. Very good things.

Jack started to whistle.


End file.
